7/21/2013 -- Mariners Break Record

A record was broken today. Sure, it’s not the kind of record that’ll appear on the cover of Rolling Stone. It probably won’t even make the cover of Us Weekly. But a record was broken, and it’s not every day that that happens. “So what was it,” you ask. I’ll tell you: Today, the Mariners broke the all-time record for most games ever played by the Seattle Mariners, ticking the counter up from 5,806 to 5,807.

Pause for a second to let that sink in.

Did you pause? I hope you paused. Now, let’s rap about 5,807. That’s a lot of games, as I’m sure you can tell. In fact, it’s so many games that it might cause you to think that today’s game was insignificant. After all, once you’ve played 5,806 games, what’s one more?

Don’t let yourself think that.

For starters, baseball is a game of seasons. What matters is what this game did in the context of this season, and by that metric it did a lot. By increasing their record from    45-52 to 46-52, the Mariners increased their seasonal rate of wins from .464 to .469. That increase amounts to a whopping .005, which you can tell is a large number because why would I use “whopping” if it wasn’t?

The Mariners now project to finish the season with a record of 77-85, a marked increase from the 76-86 finish they projected for before today. A pessimist might say that the difference between those records is totally irrelevant, since the Mariners won’t make the playoffs either way. A realist might also say that.

But you don’t want to be a pessimist, and you especially don’t want to be a realist, which is really nothing more than a pessimist with a dictionary. What you want to be is a baseball fan. And a baseball fan is someone who can appreciate the magic and meaning of 5,807.

So, sit back, crack open a beer, and think about 5,807. Think about it real hard. It happened today, and you were here. You were here for 5,807. Tilt that beer back and take a sip. You’re going to be telling your kids about this someday.